This is a collaboration of The Pleiades with data from Kim Quick of Florida and myself.
Kim collected 5 hours of LRGB using a Takahashi FSQ106/ST11000 remotely from New Mexico Skies which was combined, registered and post processed with my 4 hours of LRGB data using the QHY11S/Takahashi E180 from November of last year and my earlier data using a QHY9M/TMB92S captured from my home in Western Michigan.
Total integration time 13 + hours
You can see a larger view of this here:
www.astrobin.com/full/139805/0/One of my favorites, some of my earlier captures of M45 can be seen here
www.flickr.com/photos/terryhancock/sets/72157649654651422/Among the closest star clusters is M45, colloquially known as the "Seven Sisters". Due to its close proximity (a mere 440 light-years), and population of extremely hot and luminous stars, it can be easily seen with the naked eye near the constellation of Taurus. The number of visible stars in this open cluster can quickly tell an astronomer how dark a location is on a night of observation. Up to fourteen of the more than one thousand stars in M45 can be seen with the unaided eye.
The bright blue clouds surrounding the stars forms a reflection nebula known as the Maia Nebula. The enormous cloud of dust reflects the light from the hot young stars and was once assumed to be the remnants of the young stars' births, but is now known to be the serendipitous interaction of this unrelated dusty region being illuminated by the open cluster of stars passing through its interstellar neighborhood.
Comments